U.S. soldier killed as preparations for Afghan vote intensify

Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 11, 2005

2005-08-11 04:00:00 PDT Kabul, Afghanistan -- Election workers were mobilizing a drive to get ballots to remote reaches of this nation Wednesday as the U.S. military announced the death of another soldier in the fight to make Afghanistan safer for its first postwar parliamentary election.

With the Sept. 18 vote just over a month away, guerrillas from the former Taliban regime continue to attack U.S. and allied forces.

One of two American soldiers wounded Tuesday by a roadside bomb near the city of Ghazni, around 80 miles southwest of Kabul, died from his wounds, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The other soldier was listed in stable condition. Neither was identified.

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The bombing in central Afghanistan was outside the more volatile eastern and southern regions near the border with Pakistan, and it underscored the enormous task U.S. and allied forces face as they try to secure large swaths of the country for next month's vote.

Last year's smaller-scale presidential election was largely peaceful, despite Taliban threats to attack polling stations and kill voters. But this spring, the militant Muslim movement and its allies intensified their insurgency using more sophisticated weapons, such as remote-controlled bombs.

At least 41 U.S. soldiers have died in hostile fire and 24 in accidents so far this year in Afghanistan. About 900 Afghans have died in the fighting this year, most of them either insurgents or civilians, including election workers targeted by the militants.

Afghan officials blame the Taliban's resurgence on Pakistan and accuse Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's military of secretly allowing insurgents to train and arm in bases near the Afghan border. Pakistani authorities deny the charge.

On Sunday, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who leads an alliance of six Islamic parties that form the official opposition in Pakistan's National Assembly, accused Musharraf's government of aiding cross-border attacks on U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

"This is hypocrisy," Rehman, a longtime Taliban supporter and fierce critic of the West, told a news conference in Lahore. "The rulers are not only trying to deceive the U.S. and the West, but also hoodwinking the entire nation."

Rehman, one of Pakistan's most powerful clerics, said fighters were being moved in private vehicles from the tribal areas of Waziristan to training camps in Mansehra, northeast of the city of Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. From there, they move back to the border and cross into Afghanistan, said Rehman, whose alliance controls the provincial government.

He demanded that Musharraf's administration name the guerrillas and "reveal who is supervising their trouble-free entry into Afghanistan and (the) reasons for their infiltration."

"We will have to openly tell the world whether we want to support jihadis or crack down on them," Rehman said. "We can't afford to be hypocritical anymore."

James Grierson, head of logistics for next month's elections in Afghanistan, called insecurity one of the biggest challenges facing election workers as they prepare for the vote.

"It is a difficult environment to work in, in terms of security," Grierson said Wednesday as he released details on the efforts to get the ballots to the countryside. "It can be debilitating, in terms of carrying out our tasks."

A bomb targeting election workers exploded Wednesday morning at Pul-e- Alam, in Logar province, said Sultan Ahmed Baheen, spokesman for the Joint Electoral Management Body. The blast damaged a police vehicle, but no one was injured, he added.

Organizing the vote for parliament is more complex than last year's presidential poll, Grierson said.

About 29 million paper ballots list the names of candidates for the upper and lower houses of parliament. More than a month before the vote, election crews are already moving the ballots to remote parts of the country. In some locations, workers will have to travel several days by foot to reach polling stations.

About 160,000 polling officials are being recruited for the election, and about 60,000 security personnel will be deployed for the vote.

Citizens who decide to brave the threat of violence and go to the polls will face a daunting choice in the voting booth. In last year's presidential election, there were only 18 candidates on the ballot. But there are 5,800 candidates running for parliament in 69 districts.